From the opening drumbeat, the "Sinfonia" employs a sonata form of dramatic power; it has an implacable momentum.

Record Review /
Gramophone (London) / 01. November 2013

[Cello Symphony]: "The present record captures the very individual orchestral sound and places the soloist in an absolutely natural relationship with it. As for the performance, it is quite simply beyond praise. Rostropovich is so completely inside the music that one ceases to be aware whether what he is doing is difficult or not (much of it is) and the English Chamber Orchestra play with a rhythmic precision and a dynamic range that give every detail its due weight and character." (Jeremy Noble, Gramophone, December 1964)